Well hello Family and Friends!
This week is has been pretty great! I am seriously enjoying every moment here in the mission...I still can't believe that it is December already! WHERE DID THE YEAR GO?!?!
So basically our week consisted of so many meetings and Sister Training leaders things we hardly had no time to work in our own area! But we still had some amazing miracles.. :) Saturday was basically the only day that we had to proselyte in our area and WOWOWOWOWO!!!! WE talked to SOOOOOO many people! We have this thing in our mission called park your car day, were all the missionaries have to park their cars and ride bikes the whole day. The whole idea is to get us talking to more people. The past two Saturdays have been full of rain and cold but this Saturday was gorgeous! Absolutely beautiful! (Blessing number one from our heavenly father) And we everyone we met were super friendly and actually open to hearing our message! (Blessing number two) AND we got two new solid investigators just from Saturday alone!!! YEAHHH! (Blessing number three). They are really really cool. One of them at first wanted nothing to do with us but then she told us that her niece got recently baptized and I just happened to know her niece from my last area! She opened up a lot to us after that. She began to tell us how she had searched into a lot of different churches but was struggling to know how to find the truth....well...we can help with that! :) We ended up setting up a return appointment and left her with a promise that this was an answer to her prayers. Now that I think about it, our appointment is tonight! I'm super excited to teach this sweet spirit.
We also contacted someone else in the same apartment complex who apparently use to be a former investigator. She too at first was not interested but we saw that she was struggling to carry her groceries in so we offered to help and she opened up to us. Isn't service the best? We ended up getting to know her a lot more and she told us how she was here alone in the united states and how she missed her kids down in Honduras. She also told us about how most of her family members have passed away and how she is not exactly sure if there is an afterlife. Perfect teaching moment! My lovely companion shared with her a few points about the plan of salvation and then I had the opportunity to testify to the truths that she stated. The spirit was so strong in the room and before Lourdes was half listening but now we had her full attention. Could totally tell she was feeling it. We asked her if she would be interested in learning more about this message and she gave us a solid yes. We have an appointment with her on Saturday! Whoop! whoop! :)
The Lord is truly blessing us here in East Sac, and not just us but the Elders as well. According to Hermana Nokes, the elders haven't had investigators at church for the past three transfers. WELL.....they had one come this week. Actually, they have had three in the past two weeks and one really solid one named Jose! He is super super awesome! Comments in gospel principles, loves what we teach....he even stayed after church to practice the song we are going to be singing as a ward in our Christmas program! He just fits right in! We are super excited for the Elders!
So for meetings, we had MLC (Mission Leadership Council), Team ups with the other Hermanas, and Zone Training. Zone Training is always super stressful but it always turns out good. Hermana Nokes and I were assigned to train on Joy and Goals and we had planned out about 20 minutes to do....well the Zone leaders went a little bit over with their training and left us about five minutes....GREAT! We ended up trashing our original plan and just depending on the spirit. IT. WAS. CRAZINESS! But we got it done! President was also there for our Zone Training and when he gave his closing remarks, he said that we summed up perfectly what he had taken him a whole hour to train the leaders on at MLC! Talk about compliments from President! :) He even said that we should do the training for next MLC! (ha..haha...noooooooo thank you!)
He is really great. :)
But I think the biggest thing I learned from this week was actually from our training (Funny how when you are preparing to teach others, you end up learning something yourself). As I was studying about joy, I realized a few things. First, joy is a choice. Sometimes we mistakenly think that Joy is the consequence of a choice we make but actually it is quite the other way around. Joy is the choice we make. There is something that Elder Russell M. Nelson said in this last general conference that I just love. He said "My dear brothers and sisters, the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives." So very true. I just think about the many times I have had to walk or ride my bike in the rain or deal with difficult members or investigators, or even the time our car tire popped and we were stranded for a good two hours or so and I felt complete joy! I felt so joyful during all of these circumstances. It is so empowering to know that joy is a choice.
Second, I feel the most joy when I am fulfilling my purpose. Hard work is a really good source for joy! I remember how many times I wasted so much time back home and hours later, I would look back and feel totally unfulfilled. I think the reason I feel so joyful out here is because I am actually fulfilling something. I have a purpose. A goal. It is wonderful.
Third, the source of all joy is Jesus Christ. It is because of him that I can even feel joy! I am seriously so grateful for this time of year and that we have the opportunity to celebrate his birth. What a wonderful way to worship him... I love you all, Hermana Paredes
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| Hermanas Paredes and Nokes |
Thank you for teaching about joy! Wonderful letter!
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